"first catch your hare" meaning in English

{
  "etymology_text": "Supposedly from an error in The Art of Cookery by Hannah Glasse, where \"catch\" should have read \"case\" (i.e. remove the skin); however, this is apocryphal.",
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "proverb"
      },
      "expansion": "first catch your hare",
      "name": "en-head"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "proverb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English proverbs",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with 1 entry",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with entries",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              140,
              161
            ]
          ],
          "ref": "1866, Elizabeth Gaskell, chapter 9, in Wives and Daughters, London: Smith, Elder & Co.:",
          "text": "Have you never thought of marrying again? […] Mr. Gibson had thought of this advice several times since it was given; but it was a case of \"first catch your hare.\" Where was the \"sensible and agreeable woman of thirty or so?\"",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Make sure you have a thing before you decide what to do with it."
      ],
      "id": "en-first_catch_your_hare-en-proverb-WxOYGrdh"
    }
  ],
  "word": "first catch your hare"
}

{
  "etymology_text": "Supposedly from an error in The Art of Cookery by Hannah Glasse, where \"catch\" should have read \"case\" (i.e. remove the skin); however, this is apocryphal.",
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "proverb"
      },
      "expansion": "first catch your hare",
      "name": "en-head"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "proverb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English lemmas",
        "English multiword terms",
        "English proverbs",
        "English terms with quotations",
        "Pages with 1 entry",
        "Pages with entries"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              140,
              161
            ]
          ],
          "ref": "1866, Elizabeth Gaskell, chapter 9, in Wives and Daughters, London: Smith, Elder & Co.:",
          "text": "Have you never thought of marrying again? […] Mr. Gibson had thought of this advice several times since it was given; but it was a case of \"first catch your hare.\" Where was the \"sensible and agreeable woman of thirty or so?\"",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Make sure you have a thing before you decide what to do with it."
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "first catch your hare"
}